Pocket gum dispenser



May14, 1940. ,L 2,200,553

POCKET GUM DISPENSER Filed Feb. 1, 1939 6 T FIG- FIG- Z 28 27 2 l7. 2! j Z a /4 a |5 Li a P29 i7 5 9 INVENTOR Patented May 14, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE POCKET GUM DISPENSER Louis lllmer, Cortland, N. Y.

Application February 1, 1939, Serial No. 253,966 3 Claims. (Cl. WG-40) This invention pertains to a handy, low cost dispenser of the grippable receptacle type for protectively and compactly stowing therein a refill stack of chewing gum bars or the like nonresilient fiat commodity of a standardized size that when aged may become brittle and break when flexed. The component bars of such refill are generally individually paper wrapped with the makers name thereon and being collectively sold in sealed Cellophane packages containing some five or six such bar specimens. My small holder box is intended to be unobstrusively carried. about in the owner's pocket or handbag for occasional use and serves to keep the contents of a broken gum package or the like separable elements from being scattered about, and which specimens may by manipulative means be successively delivered at will in a perfectly clean and appetizing condition.

Such improved dispenser may readily be refilled with a selected brand of loosely stacked flat gum bars without breakage or warpage. The manipulative container cover that is herein kept shorter than the overall bar length may be slidably guided to include a retractible lip device which automatically grips a particular bar to singly and positively eject one end of a particular bar ahead of the leading edge of the holder cover into an initial exposed position wherein both bar sides may be firmly finger gripped for complete withdrawal when the cover is brought into its forward extreme of reciprocative travel. Prior to ejection, a follower spring will have advanced the last named bar into gripped lip engagement, said device serving to separate the stack of bars and to expose the last gripped bar for use through a common container slot in unison with alternate reciprocative movements of the manipulated cover and its associated lip. Disengageable stop means are provided to permit removal of the cover, whereupon the dispenser may be reloaded with a fresh supply of fragile gum bars.

The primary object of the present improvements is to afford a high grade gum dispenser of the indicated character capable of being rapidly fabricated at a low productive cost by stamping methods whereby to provide for a profitable chain store item, premium article, or advertising novelty,. particularly of the kind that are marketed through large scale distributors or the like channels.

embodiment, and in which:

Fig. 1 shows a top view of my assembled dispenser, and Figs. 2 and 3 respectively are rear and front end views thereof.

Fig. 4 depicts a side view of Fig. 1, and'Fig. 5

. of Fig. 6.

Fig. 9 illustrates a simple blank that may be resorted to in making my container.

Referring in detail to such disclosures, the receptacle or holder H| is preferably given a rectangular boxlike contour somewhat longer and. wider than the size of the loaded chewing gum bars II intended to be stacked therein. As indicated in Fig. 8, such holder may be stamped up out of relatively thin stock preferably of sheet aluminum, to comprise a bottom wall l2, opposed side walls l3 and i4 and complementary transverse end walls I5 and I6, said wall pairs being respectively upturned along their several dotted crimp lines such as I! and I8. The corner regions thus formed may be brazed or spot welded together but if desired, my container may also be fabricated by a deep drawing operation or cast into a jointless structure of any suitable material.

The respective upstanding longitudinal edges of said side walls may be flared into the reversely inclined guideways l9 and 20. The interconnecting top edge of the rear end wall I5 is shown transversely offset to form an interior lip receiving pocket 2|. The corresponding front end wall l6 may be apertured, depressed or otherwise arranged relative to the tops of said guideways to afford a slotted opening 22 having a width substantially equal to the thickness T of the series of similar gum bars comprised in the stack I I.

A cross-sectionally channeled cover 23 of sheet metal or the like may be resorted to and provided with a pair of beveled shoes such as 25 which slidably embrace said inclined guideways in the Fig. 7 manner to serve as a crosshead. Said crosshead structure serves to guide the depending ejector lip 26 through a relatively long stroke range when reciprocated manually. This lip is preferably formed integral with the rear end of the slidable cover and is shieldingly received within the pocket 2! as shown in Fig. 6 when the crosshead 25 assumes one extreme of travel, said'pocket being interio'rly disposed in substantial alignment with the front wall slot 22. Said retractable cover is preferably given a length shorter than the'gum bars and equipped with an upstanding manipulative thumb piece 2i or equivalent means, the reciprocative member together with its lip device being normally shiftable between the full and dotted stroke travel positions indicated as S. That is to say, the reciprocative travel limits of the cover are purposely confined to a minor portion of the bar length but said cover is also adapted to be wholly withdrawn for refill purposes.

A metal follower plate 2'! may underlie the stack of loaded bars and have the respective upset plate ends down turned to a length greater than the bar thickness T. A dished leaf spring 28 preferably with curled ends, may be interposed between such plate and the bottom wall I2. The fixed medial region of my spring may be mounted in a simple manner by indenting the respective body sides inwardly to form opposed prongs such as 29. Said spring region may be given a face width that will snugly snap in place between such prongs and be retained against the bottom wall l2. The respective spring ends may be tapered, if so desired.

One of the cover shoes may be provided with a resilient extension lug 30 arranged to slide alongside a container wall and the continued travel of which extension lug in a forward direction may be obstructed by a relatively short wall protuberance 3|. The reversed cover movement is stopped when the lip 26 abuts and lies within the pocketed portion of the end wall IS. The topmost gum bar is then free to feed automatically toward the slidable cover 23 and thus allow the nested lip 26 to fall into positively gripped engagement behind the rear end of such bar (see Fig. 6). If now the cover is thumb manipulated forwardly into its dotted stroke position while the dispenser is being held in one hand, said bar will be partially ejected through the slot 22 into its dotted position designated HA, where it can be conveniently withdrawn from the container by the user's other hand. During repeated d spensing, the loaded bars will be successively delivered in unison with alternate strokes given to my lip device.

The pressure of the spring 28 is intended to be kept comparatively light but affords sufllcient thrust to simultaneously shift all of the nonejected bars toward the overlying cover and thereby allow its lip 26 to automatically engage behind each next adjacent bar when said lip is returned into its extreme rearward stroke position. It will be observed that the lip is then properly shielded by the pocket 2| in order that only the topmost bar will be operatively engaged and leaving the remaining bars intact for subsequent delivery. It may also be pointed out that the length of said lip need not necessarily extend across the full width of the cover as shown. Furthermore, by making the cover length shorter than the end wall spacing, the partially ejected bar HA is unobstructedly exposed for manual withdrawal. The exhaustion of the bar supply becomes visible in any cover position.

To refill my container with a new stack of bars after tearing the usual Cellophane seal and collective band therefrom, the shoe extension lug 30 may be lifted over the protuberance 3| to allow of freely dismantling the cover. When the bar contents have been successively e ected, the leaf spring will bring the follower plate into contact with the cover 23. Because of its downturned ends, said plate will not be ejected through the slot 22 but coacts to stall cover movement when. the container becomes empty. .As will be evident, the interposed plate 21 represents a non-essential element, although it does facilitate slip on part of the curled spring ends without excessive drag along the individual paper wrapping of the last discharged bar. The exterior of my dispenser is purposely kept free of sharp projections likely to wear or tear the pocket or handbag in which it is being carried about.

A maintained spring tension imparts a corresponding frictional drag to the slidable cover and thereby retains the same in its normal rearward position without allowing the topmost bar to inadvertently drop out of place. As an advertising novelty, the cover or some other face portion of my container may be embossed or labeled with suitable script marked 32 in Fig. 1. For trim, the several dispenser components may be given contrasting color dips. Furthermore, while a five bar holder has been specifically described, the same underlying structure may be utilized to stow a larger quantity of bar specimens or to provide for multiple compartments that respectively stow different brands of gum, each equipped with independent manipulative ejector lip means.

It is believed the foregoing detailed disclosure will teach how to devise a grippable pocket dispenser into which gum bars may be compactly charged without allowing any of its contents to become disarranged until ejected for use. As will be understood by those skilled in this art, certain structural refinements may find application to analogous purposes other than pocket gum dispenser needs and that various changes in the disposition thereof may be resorted to in likewise carrying out my single illustrative embodiment,

all without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention heretofore described and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A grippable pocket dispenser for stowing therein a refill stack of flat gum bars'or the like, said dispenser comprising a box shaped receptacle having a bottom wall provided with opposed side walls of which corresponding longitudinal :dges are respectively equipped with mated guideway means and which receptacle further comprises a rear end wall and a front end wall arranged to provide for a slot located crosswise of said guideway means, a manipulative cover overlying the stacked bars and having a length shorter than said bars, opposed longitudinal edge regions of said cover respectively including shoe means cooperating with said guideway means for manual reciprocative cover movement therealong and whichcover in all its travel positions is arranged to leave exposed a portion of a next adjacent bar, means for bodily advancing the stack of bars toward said cover, and transversely disposed ejector lip means carried by the cover and in one extreme of travel serving to positively grip the rear end of a particular stacked bar lying next adjacent to said cover, said lip means further serving to initiate the ejection of each successive next adjacent bar through said slot in unison with alternate reciprocative ccver strokes and to unobstructedly expose both side face portions of each such bar when partially ejected.

2. A pocket dispenser for stowing therein a refill stack of gum bars or the like, said dispenser comprising a box shaped receptacle ha ing a bottom wall provided with opposed side walls of Which corresponding longitudinal edges are respectively equipped with guideway means and which receptacle further comprises a rear end aaoaees wall and a slotted front end wall, manipulative ejector lip means including mated shoe means respectively cooperating with the guideways for manual reciprocative lip movement therealong, said lip means in one extreme of reciprocative travel serving to independently grip the rear end of a particular stacked bar for subsequent delivery through the slot of the front end Wall, resilient lug means carried by one of said shoes and extending exteriorly of its adjacent side wall, and a protuberance associated with said adjacent side wall serving to normally obstruct the forward stroke of said lip means, said lug when sprung outwardly away from its adjacent wall being adapted to over-ride the protuberance for bar refill purposes,

3. A dispenser for stowing therein a stack of flat bars of a substantially equal overall length, said dispenser comprising a box-shaped receptacle including a bottom wall with opposed side walls that are cross-connected by a rear end wall and an apertured front end wall, a guided reciprocative cover overlying said stack of bars and which cover is kept shorter than said bar length and arranged to be manually reciprocated into one extreme travel position lying inwardly away from the front end wall, thrust means interposed between the bottom wall and said stack of bars, and lip means carried adjacent the transverse rear cover edge serving to automatically grip the corresponding end of a next adjacent bar when said cover is placed in the aforesaid one position and to partially eject said bar through the front end wall when the forward transverse cover edge is advanced toward the last named wall, both side faces of such ejected forward bar end being thereby unobstructedly exposed in a leading relation to said forward cover edge.

LOUIS ILLMER. 

